Quote: "When I talk about public safety, I can talk about the programs I have done in this community."

Website: ransomforsupervisor.org

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STOCKTON - It's been four years since there's been an open seat on the San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors and 10 years since that open seat has been in the county's southernmost Fifth District.

Supervisor Leroy Ornellas was first elected to the seat for a partial term in 2002 after the death of one supervisor and the appointment of another. He was elected to two full terms after that, the limit under county rules.

Now he's running for state Senate, and three would-be supervisors from Tracy have lined up to take his place. One's a city councilman, another sits on the Planning Commission and the third is a retired farmer.

If a candidate gets a majority of votes, the race will be over June 5. If nobody gets a majority, then the top two vote-getters would go on to a November runoff.

Front-runners Bob Elliott and Rhodesia Ransom have been scooping up endorsements and campaign cash so far, but Tom Benigno says he would bring his experience as a longtime farmer and business owner to the board.

The creation of jobs is Benigno's top issue, so much so that he said he supports building a peripheral canal to carry water already being exported from the Delta. He acknowledges it's not popular but said its construction would bring thousands of jobs. "I'm hoping to set a firestorm on this issue ... but it could come back on me," said Benigno, a longtime county resident.

Elliott and Ransom both moved to Tracy from the Bay Area about a decade ago, part of the period of rapid growth in the county. Though growth has slowed, District 5 is expected to continue to add people. It includes all of the city of Tracy and part of Manteca. It also holds the unincorporated community of Mountain House.

Elliott spent a long career in the military, retiring as a U.S. Army Special Forces colonel. Along the way, he also he held diplomatic assignments in Seoul, South Korea, and Tokyo. He's now a program manager at an energy company. He took his current job after his old one moved him out of state, away from his extended family. When it came time to move back to California, he and his wife chose Tracy a second time. He launched his political career in a successful run for Tracy City Council in 2010.

Elliott calls himself the candidate for responsible government, and he said he's shown that during his tenure so far on the City Council. There, he said he's been a consistent voice about balancing the city budget and taking steps to keep it in balance. He'd remain consistent at the county government level, he said. "That's what I'm talking about when I'm talking about responsible government."

Elliott counts fiscal responsibility among his top priorities, a list that also includes public safety, economic development and protecting agriculture.

Ransom said she also said she would keep the county budget in line by tackling wasteful spending. That means not authorizing spending without close scrutiny, she said. "Wasteful spending is when you're spending with your eyes closed."

As director of a Tracy nonprofit, she has been able to start programs using limited resources, she said. One example was a joint effort with fire officials to start a campaign to help protect families from carbon-monoxide poisoning. For students, this included efforts to tamp down violence before it starts by targeting bullying and intervention to keep kids out of gangs.

This previous work is reflected in her campaign priority, she said, which is public safety. And she said her time on both the city Planning Commission and two years on the county's civil grand jury has prepared her for office and shown her commitment.

When it comes to agricultural, Ransom and Elliott oppose the construction of a peripheral canal. Both also said they support the Williamson Act, saying the $1.5 million cost to the county to provide the tax break is worth it to protect county's valuable farmland.

And both said they would be supporters of San Joaquin General Hospital, and that it seems efforts to get the hospital's finances in order were moving in the right direction. And both said the goal should be a self-sufficient hospital.

There are two other seats on the board this year. Incumbent Steve Bestolarides faces no challengers in District 3. Supervisor Carlos Villapudua is defending his District 1 seat in a challenge from former Stockton City Councilman Mark Stebbins.